What is Creativity?

What has been around as long as humans? What exists in all cultures? What can be demonstrated by young and old, educated and uneducated, rich and poor? What is known and recognized by most everyone, yet is so hard to define?

CREATIVITY!

This is one definition offered by E. Paul Torrence, the "father of creativity":

"Creativity is a process of becoming sensitive to problems, gaps in knowledge, missing elements, disharmonies, and so on; identifying the difficulty; searching for solutions; making guesses or formulating hypotheses about the deficiencies; testing and retesting and possibly modifying and retesting again! And finally, communicating the results."

We all have more ideas floating around in our minds than we use. Creative thinking, which is innate to some and has to be learned by others, will help us use these ideas and come up with new and better ideas. The more you practive creative thinking, the more the mind will become creative... Some people look at a different situation and say, "It cannot be done." With creative thinking, you will find very few things are impossible.

My next blog installments on creativity will review the skills needed for creative thinking: fluency, flexibility, elaboration, and evaluation.

Until next time, think about how you can become more creative with your craft!

Friday's FavoriteS

Why is the "S" capitalized this week? Because I've decided to feature three Etsy shops with really cool items and awesome photos! Here are the three lucky shops:

1. Tom, from Etsy shop The View Up Here, is a photographer with a twist. He uses some unique methods to capture his pictures, and that struck me as a very creative and original approach to this art form! Please visit his Etsy shop to learn more, and be prepared to view some beautiful landscapes as well as detailed, closeup shots from Hawaii and Texas.

2. Redhead Diva's Paper Emporium can get you stickered! To quote her shop announcement, "Shop Stickers, Thank You Stickers, Birthday Stickers" - she has them all! Some nice business cards in this shop, too. This would be a great place to shop to help your own Etsy shop look very professional!

3. Amy, from Etsy shop Have Art, specializes in hand painted wall art, with inspiration! Check out some of her colorful and comtemporary crosses.

Please visit these three shops and leave us your comments! Until next Friday...

All images are used with permission and © by the above mentioned artists. All rights reserved.

Blog Contest #2 - Everyone Should Vote!

I'm a firm believer in the voting process...

It is going to be another custom pair of earrings as the giveaway this time. They can be designed from any of the gemstones I have in stock with sterling silver, copper, or brass accents. We will work together to make a truly unique design, just for you!

So what do you have to do? Well, vote of course! Vote for me on Artzee once per day and post my rank as a comment here. For example, your comment can just say, "I voted, your rank was 42." This link will cast a vote for you, and then you will need to look for DLPom in the listing of sites:

Vote Here!

Person with the most posts and correct ranking numbers by the end of the contest wins...ties will be broken by random drawing...contest ends August 10th, 2008.

Good luck!

Friday's Favorite: Artful Memories

This Etsy shop is all about colorful fun, and getting your photos organized. I like that! I'm pleased to feature Lara Medina of the Etsy shop "Artful Memories" as my Friday's Favorite. Here is her interview:

Are your family's photos in shoeboxes and old sticky albums? Get them out! Let me help! My name is Lara and my shop is Artful Memories. I create fun, funky scrapbooks, scrapbooking kits, journals, wall art, and other goodies that showcase your treasured memories and tell your story.


Scrapbooking, for me, is therapeutic and my creative outlet. A few years back, I was sick, and didn't know what was wrong with me. To this day, we still don't know what was wrong. I needed something to get my mind off of how awful I felt, so I headed off to my local craft store and picked up some card making supplies. The kids and I made a few cards together; it was okay. My husband is a photographer, so we have tons of pictures of the kids lying around. I thought, let me try this "scrapbooking" I hear so much about. I was hooked! The rest is history, our history!

I would love to do some more custom work. I have done pages for people, where they just send me a photograph and some info about the picture, and I create a layout for them. I want to do complete albums like baby's first year or a family's "year in review."

There are so many resources on the internet for paper crafting. I get a lot of inspiration from many different places. A great one is Scrapbook. My blog is a great source of inspiration, too!


If you are just getting started in scrapbooking, just remember, there is no wrong way. If you are new to Etsy or have recently opened your shop, congratulations! Etsy is an amazingly awesome community. Everyone is so friendly and always eager to help. Get involved in the forums, ask questions, check out shops that are similar to yours. Keep your shop current by adding new items regularly, and renewing items when you can't list new ones. Last but not least, hang in there! The sales will come. For some it happens the first day they open and for some, it takes a while longer. I waited 1 1/2 months for my first sale, and my first customer bought 3 kits from me. I was so excited! So just hang in there!

There are so many wonderful shops on Etsy! I have barely scratched the surface! I find new shops to heart every time I log on! I recently purchased a sling bag from L&B Accessories. Everything about the experience was terrific and I love my new bag!

Thanks, Lara, for that wonderful interview. Please visit her shop and leave a comment to let us know you dropped by!

The Prize! - Blog Contest #1

Wendi said her favorite color was pink...and that she liked simple earrings rather than elaborate.

I hope she loves her faceted, rose quartz earrings!

Thanks for participating in my first Blog Contest, Wendi...your earrings are on the way. Enjoy them!

And the Winner is......

Drumroll....Wendi of WendiWinn, Papery - Cards, Gift Tags, Scrapbooking, Notebooks on Etsy!

I appreciated her sense of humor about wanting coats for cold weather, but not really needing one. I can relate, living in south Texas!

Congratulations for being the Blog Contest #1 Winner! I've left you an Etsy convo so we can get in touch to design your custom earrings. Can't wait to see what she chooses!

Friday's Favorite: A Stitch in Dye

I'm pleased to feature Malka Dubrawsky, owner of Etsy shop "a stitch in dye." She has the most beautiful fabrics with colors that really pop! I'm reminded of the Caribbean each time I look at her shop. She is a fellow Texan, calling the capitol of Austin home. Here is her interview:

My name is Malka Dubrawsky and my business is called a stitch in dye. There I sell my quilts, pillow covers, coasters, totes and even some scarves and baby items. The common thread among all these items, other than being sewn by me, is that they are either partly or wholly crafted out of my hand dyed and batiked cotton fabric. And for those who craft themselves or know someone who does, I sell half yard and yard pieces of all my designs and variety bundles as well.

I have always loved fabric and I also enjoy making items that others can truly use. I have a Bachelor of Fine Art in Studio Art though I didn't start out as a fiber person. In fact when I first came to crafting with fabric, I made art quilts exclusively. But, there was always something missing for me about an item that couldn't really be used. Lately, I've made some smaller decorative quilts, but I definitely feel like they're informed by my having made so many functional items.


I'd like to keep growing my business. I've done a fair amount of design work this past year, and enjoyed that as well. I'm even thinking about opening up a second online store, probably outside Etsy.

First and foremost I LOVE flickr. There is so much to be inspired by there. I also regularly check Whipup. They have great tutorials. Both of these should be useful to other fabric crafters.

It's going to sound a little cliche, but I think the best advice is to keep making the things that you want to make. Don't let yourself be overly influenced by trends. Being true to your own muse is the only way to discover your voice.

My other Etsy shop recommendation is DrikaB. She makes terrific bags in fabulous sizes, prices them honestly (which means she doesn't undersell herself) and photographs her items beautifully. What more could you ask for?

Thanks for the awesome interview and photos, Malka. Good luck with your shop! Please leave us a comment if you have enjoyed reading this interview.

Blog Contest #1 - Hurricane Junction!

It's that time of year. Hurricane Dolly is heading toward south Texas, but those of us a little north will probably get a boatload of rain. Good, as long as it isn't too much. I live near the city of concrete (Houston), and concrete doesn't absorb water!

But, since I am a naturalist at heart, I actually find hurricanes (and other unusual weather) a little exciting!

So my first blog contest is named "Hurricane Junction!" Answer the following question in the comments section of this post to win a custom pair of simple, pierced earrings from any of the semi-precious gemstones I have in stock! See more examples here. Be sure to leave a safe way for me to contact you if you win. The winner will simply be the answer I like best!

Question: What is your favorite type of weather where you live? What do you enjoy doing in this weather?

Have fun! I look forward to reading all your answers. Contest deadline: July 27th, 2008.